Kogi: NLC warns Bello over implementation of Contributory Pension Scheme

The Nigeria Labour Congress in Kogi State has cautioned Governor Yahaya Bello over the implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme.
State chairman of the NLC, Comrade Onuh Edoka who was speaking on the sideline of a sensitization programme organized by the state government to see reasons why Civil Servants should key into the scheme, observed that the said Contributory Pension Scheme had failed in other states which adopted it in Nigeria.

The NLC chairman who assured the government of their unflinching support to test the scheme in kogi state noted that Labour had no issue with the scheme since it was already backed by law and mandatory for all civil servants to key into the system.
“We are equally thinking that government should kick-start the payment of this funds into an account where we will would believe that the money has been kept very well, judiciously and untampered with, then the workers can now key into it.
LThis scheme has been running in other states and has already failed. And we don’t want to go into a scheme of that nature, that at the end of the day, workers money will now be collected into an account, and government will spend the same money for other activities and give us excuses after excuses, we won’t be taking that kind of rubbish this time around,” he said.

Edoka while admonishing the state government to be transparent in the scheme vowed that Labour will resist any attempt aimed at shortchanging civil servants in the State.
When asked why is NLC supporting the scheme which was earlier reported to have failed in other states, Edoka said “we are believing it may happen positively in Kogi State.
“We must not think because it has failed in other States, it will also fail in Kogi State. Let us believe in the positivity of Kogi. Until it fails in Kogi, then we can now see how we can go about it.”

Earlier, the Kogi State Auditor General who doubles as the Chairman, Technical Committee on the implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) said the new pension scheme was introduced against the backdrop of the Old Pension Scheme Pay-As-You-Go, which according to him was unfounded, inefficient and marred by mal-administration and above all corrupt practices.
He explained that in the case of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the system had incurred pension deficit liabilities to the tune of N2.3 trilllion.